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pg.23

water dripped down my face through a slit where the two pieces of canvass were joined overhead. We slept in our clothes and as the night was chilly we piled all our blamkets on top with a raincoat underneath. (It didn't take us long to find out that you must pile as many blankets underneath as on top). Beside me, Alan quickly fell asleap. After being horribly seasick for most of the voyage., he was quite happy to be on solid ground. Through the night out artillery whistled over our heads on its way to the Japs and the enemy whistled right back. Twisting my body, I was able to slip out a cigarette from my pocket and lit it after several failure with the matches now quite damp in my pocket. I smoked quietly listening to the sounds of the night, patted my carbine at my side for reassurance, turned, drew the blankets closer and tried to sleep.

The light of morning revealed that we had dug in right alongside a prison stockade enclosing three, bowing, smiling Japanese. Later that day as we prowled about enemy mortar fire began falling on us. I took off, sailed smoothly through the air and landed headfirst into the nearest hole. It was full of ammunition cases. Thinking this places was as equally unhealthy as being out in the open I scrambled out and slithered into another hole containing, I saw to my satisfaction, many cans marked "Water". The mortar barrage ended, I crawled out and